we don't put up a tree to decorate because look at how decorated the trees already are!

but we celebrated a nice, quiet couple of days together.....jambaloney even worked on his contract on Christmas day!!!! we ate like mad fools....nothing new there - we always do!

when we get sad that it's winter we bust out the thai spring rolls and carrot ginger dressing for the salad. with sprouts and mandarines and a dipping sauce so spicy it would make my NM bestie, who's also named Spicy, blush - bahahahahah!

that was a good one, i gotta admit it. more carrot ginger dressing, more sprouts and leftover vermicelli created this lovely salad to go along with BLT's....

we like daily salads with a mix of everything in the fridge....

we love veggies and fruits and we aren't afraid to say it!

but sometimes the greek ancestors come calling and they want some lamb.

followed up the next day with another daily, this time greek-ish inspired, salad.

the remainder of the lamb was turned into one of the best lamb stews we've ever eaten!

and you simply can't say "holiday" or "merry christmas" without holiday/christmassy sushi - you just can't!

jambaloney is getting really good at rolling the sushi! and that kimchi is at least 3 months old and it sure tasted like it!

Christmas Dinner is something that we actually do celebrate - this year with a lovely stuffed duck!

no worries - shrimp pasanda to the rescue. made from scratch with onion, garlic, ginger, garam masala, turmeric, chili powder, curry powder, cayenne, ground coriander, tomatoes, coconut milk and coconut oil. there is still some of the sauce left so i think we might be tossing the leftover duck in it.

we hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you got to spend it with family and friends, if that's what you wanted. we went to the Lobster's 'R Us Christmas party 2 weeks ago and had a blast meeting up with friends old and new. we are looking very much forward to the new year and all that it will bring with it. we are happy and healthy and 2017 is brimming with promise.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

we don't normally see this much snow, this early, in december. but we got a bit over the past few days and it doesn't look like it is going anywhere....yet.

jambaloney shoveled off all of the roofs, decks and steps, plowed the driveway and did all the cat paths - all before noon! here are some cat paths he makes with the atv - the cats love the paths!

he shovels/atvs paths all around the house for the cats!

we have received questions about going dairy-free and gluten-free and how it impacts our diet. first off, we aren't completely "dairy-free" - just "casein-free" - we still eat eggs and butter and hard, aged cheese. secondly, we have found that for the most part in the case of gluten - it's a matter of portion control. after going completely gluten-free (no bread or other wheat products) for 2 weeks, we have slowly introduced a piece of toast here, a sandwich there...just not everyday. it works for us. and using those terms just helps us explain a little of what we are doing with our diet.

some people have wondered if we were going vegan or vegetarian...uh...um...that would be a big NO WAY! but only because we do enjoy all different kinds of meat, including the kinds of meat that other people scoff their noses at but that we enjoy. and we love, and have access to, too many different varieties of fish and seafood to ever give that up. but again - it's all about portion control.

if you've followed our blog for a while, you will notice that i normally only show our meals on a black plate. that plate is always portioned with meat, carb, fruit, veg, raw and fermented food - normally. but what you might not know is that for the most part, that one plate is to feed the 2 of us. after i take the pic for the blog, i scooch some of the the food (1/3) from the black plate and jam is left with 2/3. as i normally only show a few slices of each piece of fruit or raw veg, that means there is more waiting in the sidelines. and i always make extra food for "tomorrow's dinner", so there is more food if one of us wants a little extra. but we are very conscious of portion control.

anyway, some friends have asked specifically about breakfast and dinner (which some people call lunch). they said that they can't imagine breakfast or dinner without bread. well here's a delicious boiled egg and spicy, homemade kimchi bean sprouts that make a wonderful breakfast! (as this is not shown on a black plate, it is not shared. this is a full breakfast for one of us)

here's a half a grapefruit and some spicy kimchi for breakfast.

whenever certain types of food are available, jambaloney buys up a ton and i make kimchi with it - yummeh!

you want an egg salad sandwich for dinner but can't have bread? how about an egg/potatoe salad with radish and celery with pickled bean sprouts on top rolled up in a nice piece of lettuce? trust me, you won't miss the bread!

a delicious fatoush-inspired shrimp salad for dinner or supper with organic corn chips (no gluten)...(on a black plate which means it was shared - that's 2 portions on one plate)

another black plate...it means the food is shared....

notice the size of the piece of grilled chicken? also shared. with kimchi, raw bean sprouts, tomatoe slices and a ton of grilled veg.

a small bowl of chicken noodle soup for breakfast, or morning snack or afternoon snack.

want a perfect meatless stir fry? prep all of your veg beforehand!

cabbage, green onion, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, celery, turnip, onion, ginger, bean sprouts. served up with brown rice and 2 raw fruit (on a black plate so this was shared. we both went back for a little more stirfry but there was plenty left for the next day's dinner)

you still want a sandwich? ok - how about a beautiful BLT with the L playing double duty. here's a delicious dinner of bacon, lettuce, tomatoe and bean sprouts on romaine lettuce leaves acting as the "bread" with a ton of mayo, salt and pepper. (black plate which means i ate one BLT and jam ate the other 2)

this is a salad that you can make in the morning and then eat on it all day long. it's especially smart to make a salad like this if you know that you are going to be busy, the both of you, for most of the day, don't want to have to stop to make food, but know that you will be eating healthy.

it's chock-full of raw and fermented ingredients. this, of course, was shared throughout the day and we didn't need to stop our work to cook. next up - everyone's favourite! butter-fried haddock, smashed potatoes and parsley, some raw apples, raw pomegranates, sweet corn and spinach that was frozen in season. (shared plate)

we are big believers in eating 6 times a day. 6 times???? yes - 6 times! we can't always control that if we have to go into town or when jam is on site at work, but we do our best. a nice filling small breakfast, a morning snack, a delicious, portion-controlled dinner, an afternoon snack, supper, and another snack (or 5) in the evening. i like to put extra effort into our afternoon snacks. like this one:

it's all about portion control and making sure that you have raw, cooked, fermented food daily. if you can handle dairy - fill your boots. same goes with bread. those are both delicious foods that many people enjoy! we just found that by removing them from our diet has helped and we have slowly started letting gluten products back in - just not too much at a time. it works for us. sorry if i have bored anyone but i have received questions and i love sharing our meals with you all...but if any of you have anymore questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

it's funny that we are all "preppers" of one sort or another and i have always found it interesting that when preparing food, it's called "prepping"....prepping the food. prepping your food can't be highly rated enough. and i don't mean storing 4 years worth of beans...i mean prepping your daily, weekly, monthly food.

for example, we just went through a winter snowstorm advisory over the past few days. we didn't get hit with much snow but many other places in the province got belted. however, when jam told me that me that we might be getting hit - we "prepped" our food for a few days. first, we chopped a cup of fresh garlic to have on hand to add to food (all of our food contains fresh garlic), as well as 3/4 cup of fresh chopped ginger. then we made a bucket-load of hummus. then we made a bean salad. then we made a kick-you-in-the-face parsley and red onion salad. we made some hard-boiled eggs. and some chicken noodle soup - enough to last for 3 or 4 days. so if the power went out - no worries. we would pull all of that food, plus some fresh fruit, shove it in our cooler, shove the cooler in the snow and no worries about what we would eat for the next several days. but it's nice to have that stuff handy even if the power doesn't go out....after breakfast, we stop for a mid-morning snack and eat a couple of chips and hummus. bean salad for dinner. parsley salad for afternoon snack. and then we cook, or not, for supper. that's how we like to make meals weekly - we like to have stuff already "prepped" and made to eat during the rest of the week.

here's early this afternoon...the sun already going down:

and this is about 4pm....the sun definitely beginning it's descent - it is dark here by about 5pm.

and then out of nowhere this big, ominous looking guy appears:

no storms or snow expected for tonight. should be back to normal temps tomorrow. we are pretending it's summertime and having shrimp/vermicelli/coriander rolls for supper - bahahahahah!

Sunday, December 11, 2016

it seems that some of our friends have been concerned about our lack of presence on the blog lately. we are really sorry if we worried any of you!

i promise we'll have a post up in a day or two and get back in to the blogging swing of things! until then - again - we are sorry if any of you were worried! we are fine and things here are at a full-tilt-boogie getting ready for winter. responses to emails from our dear friends coming soon! and i'll be checking in on all of your blogs in a day or two.

we are hoping that you are all doing well and we are sending you all much love from the both of us!

Friday, November 11, 2016

Canada does not get the recognition it deserves for WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, Somalia, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan....and a pile of other wars that my countrymen have served and fought in.

i remember. and i thank my fellow countrymen always.

to all serving members and veterans out there - in Canada, the US, GB, Australia...i salute and thank you all today.

Monday, November 7, 2016

yep...we finally did it - ditched the gluten! we went cold-turkey almost 3 weeks ago and after a couple of weeks of feeling sickly and crappy, we are finally feeling the better for it!

yesterday, i had a baby shower to attend and everyone knows a baby shower is all about the 10 million trays of sandwiches!!! i ate one tiny egg salad sliver of a sandwich and started paying for it before the shower was even over!!! it's strange how quickly your body reacts once you've eliminated something from your diet. so now to figure out what to do with all of the flour and pasta we have in our preps. we'll slowly now begin adding almond, quinoa and rice flour for the occasional times we'll make flat breads and pitas. we just had quinoa pasta for lunch and there is no difference in taste or texture. it is definitely more expensive than wheat pasta but with us being off the dairy and not spending a kajillion dollars on dairy every month, we'll be able to build up a stockpile of the quinoa pasta.

kids - we did not do this lightly. we both love bread and pizza. we love toast. we love sandwiches. but we were both starting to feel sluggish and gluggish. i suspected it was gluten. and if you suspect a food isn't good for your body - eliminate it from your body for at least 2 weeks. then try that food and see how you feel. you'll know almost immedietely after consuming it. so that's why we've been staying under the radar and just sticking close to home. lots of napping and lots of good food.

it's really starting to look like autumn - especially when the sun bounces off the ridge out front.

it's our birthday month - woohoo! i'll be 46 in a few days and jambaloney, whose birthday is 7 days after mine will be 51. we are just at the right age where changing our diets can really have a big impact on our health and we're happy with that.

here's some delicious liver and onions - we love liver!

and a delicious chicken stirfry - yummeh!

i just made another batch and a half of regular nappa kimchi and because i had some bean sprouts hanging around, i made a little jar of bean sprout kimchi - deelish!

can you believe it's november 7th and i harvested this from the greenhouse?!?!?!

we are still eating fresh tomatoes if you can believe that! that greenhouse is awesome! and here's jambaloney's jar of "never-ending pickled hot peppers":

he's been eating pickled hot peppers everyday since mid-july when i first made that jar of pickles for him. and ever since then, every few days a few more peppers ripen and i slice them up and fill his jar again - he loves them!

here's our quinoa pasta that we had for dinner today with a sausage/tomatoe sauce.

rounded out with the bean sprout kimchi and some pomegranate seeds. it was really good and the quinoa pasta seems more filling than wheat pasta.

we've had a quiet couple of weeks doing our daily jobs, getting the harvest in, eating good food, getting ready for winter - jambaloney is building our wind-break/heated cloches/plastic thingy on the front of the house - he'll have a post up soon about how we save on heating by using an ugly, but very worthwhile, heat trap. he's also been busy working on his contract every single day for months now. we've been busy gathering seeds, drying herbs, canning, preserving, etc. and just getting ready for winter.

tomorrow is a big day for our american friends and i encourage you all to get out and vote. the rest of this week should be interesting to say the least.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

jambaloney was in to work yesterday - he had a great day! and got us FREE, nutrient-packed wild food!

as he normally works in the day, he sees the lobster and crab boats come in all the time and he loves watching the operation and learning new things. since the tuna boats only come in at night - he's never seen the tuna operation before. that changed yesterday when a tuna boat came in carrying a 400lb atlantic bluefin tuna - can you believe that!?!?!?

the boat pulls in the harbour and they use a big winch-thing to lift it out of the boat - have a look:

because the plant sells the tuna commercially, they remove and discard the head, tail and all organ meat. jambaloney couldn't believe that no one wanted the organ meat - NOTHING is more precious on a wild animal than the organ meat!!! one of the guys asked if he wanted the heart and steaks from the head and tail. you can imagine jambaloney trying not to jump out of his own shoes. then buddy gave him the heart, 2 steaks from the head and 6 steaks from the tail...and we are not talking small steaks!!!! pictured below is the deep red heart in the middle and flanking the heart are 2 ginormic steaks from the head. the 6 steaks from the tail are all around the plate.

have you ever seen such beautiful red meat? a bunch of you who raise and slaughter your own animals would know - but this tuna was caught and processed in under 8 hours and after it was caught, was killed immediately, and then kept on ice until the boat got into harbour. jambaloney was so excited to have been there to have watched and these guys know what they are doing!

of course, we had to try some raw right away! the steaks from the head and tail are a lot fattier than the fillets that are used in sushi but hey - we aren't about to kick a gift horse in the mouth! the raw tuna with just a little salt was divine and waaaaay better than the thinner, less fatty fillets. then of course, we tried half a steak grilled on the bbq and half pan-fried in butter.

holy moly! talk about kick-you-in-the-face calcium and iron overdose!!! what does it taste like? how about really, really, strong, fatty, gamey moose meat combined with a pasture-fed cow's beautiful liver and kidney. a little goes a long way and that is fantastic for us as we are cutting down our meat consumption and wild, free nutrient-dense tuna fresh-caught from our beautiful ocean by our friends and jambaloney's colleagues - wow! double wow! that tuna is gonna last all winter long!

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!